


Paying the Rent

by Lanerose



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Community: fifthmus, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-22
Updated: 2007-12-22
Packaged: 2017-11-01 00:04:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/349783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lanerose/pseuds/Lanerose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yashiro finally moves out and, with the help of a certain Korean, manages to earn his parents' respect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paying the Rent

**Author's Note:**

  * For [troisroyaumes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/troisroyaumes/gifts).



>  
> 
> _Or, Apartment Shopping with Ko Yongha_  
> 

  
On Kiyoharu's eighteenth birthday, his father handed him a folded piece of paper. Kiyoharu stared at it blankly for a moment. His father glanced at his watch, and tucked his briefcase under his arm, tapping his foot. Kiyoharu put down his chopsticks. Then he unfolded the page, and stared just as blankly at the list of addresses.  
  
"What…?"  
  
"Your mother and I," his father said pointedly, staring into his eyes, "have decided it's time for you to move out on your own."  
  
Kiyoharu blinked. He was glad that he'd stopped eating, because half-chewed rice did not go well with a freshly pressed suit.  
  
"Aside from being a college student," his father's chest puffed out proudly at those words, but his shoulders shrunk in and a strange sort of grimace crossed his face as he continued, "you've been a go professional for several years now. It's time you learned what a real household budget looks like, and started figuring out how to make the most of your own."  
  
"Then these are…?" Kiyoharu gestured sideways with the piece of paper as he tried to pick his jaw the rest of the way up off the floor.  
  
"I did some research. All of those should be within your price range. You'll start looking today?" Yashiro Sr. waited until Kiyoharu managed to nod. His father pulled his briefcase out from under his arm and headed toward the door. He opened it, walked through it, and was just about to close and lock it behind him when suddenly he stopped. His father looked up at him. "And Kiyoharu?"  
  
"Yes, Father?" he managed. His father smiled, the tightness around his eyes softening just a little.  
  
"Happy birthday," he said quietly. The door closed quietly behind him before Yashiro could respond.  
  


~

  
"I'm doing it because of them, not you, so you can stop laughing any time now, you lousy bastard." Yashiro groused as he slammed a black stone onto the goban between them. He dug his fingers back into the bowl, glaring at the Korean pro across from him.  
  
Ko Yongha was not, in fact, laughing at Yashiro. At least, not in a way that anyone else could hear it. The picture of composure, he set his tea back on the floor beside him, retrieved a white stone, and placed it at 10-8. Something about the set of Ko's mouth and the twinkle in his eyes, though, set Yashiro's eyebrow ticking. He growled, "I don't even know what to look for in an apartment."  
  
"It's simple, really." Ko shook his head. "Your father gave you a list, so we'll start with that after we finish this game."  
  
"We?" The stone fell from Yashiro's fingers, dropping back into the go ke with an unsettling clatter. At least it hadn't fallen on the board. He grabbed it again and placed it at 6-7 before leaning forward, his face scrunching up. "Who said you had any more say in where my apartment is than you did in whether or not I still lived with my parents, Ko?"  
  
The smile Ko flashed him as he placed a stone at 12-13 reminded Yashiro that the man was as dangerous as the position of the same name tripled on a board. Sure enough, when he studied the board again, the upper-right corner now belonged exclusively to his opponent. Yashiro stared at it a moment longer, idly trying to figure out if a move existed or if he really wanted to look up. Ko's eyes were hard when he met them at last.  
  
"Where I'll be staying when I'm in Japan is my business," Ko said, face expressionless. "Unless you no longer wish to visit me when you're in Korea, Kiyoharu, I suggest you hurry up and resign so that we can choose somewhere sufficient."  
  
"Who said I'm going to resign?" Yashiro snarled, grabbing another stone. Ko shot him that look – the you're-only-making-more-of-a-fool-of-you

rself-and-I'm-amused-but-a-little-annoyed one – and Yashiro lowered his hand back into the ke. He looked at the stones, and at Ko, and back at the stones again.

He sighed as he bowed.

"Thank you for the game."

~

It never occurred to Kiyoharu that Yongha and his father might have different tastes in apartments. Both of them liked the nicer in things in life, so his father wouldn't come up with anything distasteful enough that Ko would sneer at it. Probably something that would drain a decent chunk of his savings, but nothing unlivable.

But the first place they visited… Well…

"Unacceptable," Yongha said as he stamped on a cockroach that was crawling its way swiftly across the building supervisor's office. Kiyoharu batted away a spider that was coming down from the ceiling and turned for the door.

The next place, at least, wasn't crawling in bugs. They spoke briefly with the super, and went on a tour of the available apartment. The kitchen stove and appliances were a little dated. The bathroom was a little small. There was also a strange patch of paint missing from one of the walls. On the whole, though, Yashiro rather liked it.

"I know the names of several wonderful hotels in Seoul," Yongha said with a smile that was more knives than sugar. Yashiro sighed. From the other side of the wall, voices began yelling at each other in English. They left without further discussion.

The third place they ended up definitely was more Ko's style, and Yashiro didn't mind it, either. Only four blocks away from the nearest train station, the apartment was clean, well-lit, and had nice thick walls on all four sides. The kitchen was small but serviceable, and it came furnished, right down to the bed linens. Yashiro glanced out the window – the place even had a decent view. He looked back at Yongha, who had a very tiny smile on his face, but shrugged.

"So you're interested?" The short, balding woman who had led them to the room asked. Kiyoharu shrugged. She grinned. "Well, rent's 5000 yen for two hours, 9,500 yen for the night, or 75,000 yen for the month. Come downstairs with me and we can get you two all – "

"WHAT?"

The woman blinked and looked at him like he was some strange sort of cockroach she'd never seen before. Then she laughed, and Yongha was laughing with her, and Kiyoharu's face was burning with heat. He turned on his heel and left twice as quickly as they had come.

He was outside and half a block away when Ko's shout first caught his ears. Another time, Yashiro might have stopped to wait for him. Maybe. If he was in a good mood. But at that particular moment, that bastard didn't deserve the time of day, let alone the minute of his time it would take to let him catch up. Yashiro walked faster.

"Yashiro!" The bastard called, his breathing labored but his voice still tinged with laughter. "Yashiro, wait up! Kiyoharu!"

A hand grabbed his from behind. Ko wasn't stronger than Yashiro, not physically he wasn't – or at least, that’s what Yashiro wanted to continue to believe, so the fact that he turned around had to mean that he sort-of wasn't _that_ upset with the bastard. Yet.

Yongha didn't waste a moment. No sooner were they facing each other than a pair of lips was against his, harsh and demanding and wonderful in a way that didn't make Kiyoharu go weak at the knees – no, not at all. Or at least not enough that he couldn't claim otherwise. Kiyoharu pushed back, opening his mouth and running his tongue against Yongha's lips until they were standing there with their tongues down each other's throats and forgetting all about whatever had been wrong with that last place.

A wolf-whistle from somewhere down the sidewalk pierced Yashiro's ears. He pulled back, and Ko let him go. They stood there staring at each, Yashiro blushing as he realized just how many admirers they had drawn.

"Bastard," Kiyoharu sighed. Yongha didn't blush. Didn't even look a little bothered. He smirked, and raised an eyebrow, and Kiyoharu sighed again.

"I think," Yongha said, grabbing his hand and dragging him towards the train station, "that it's time to try somewhere _I_ consider appropriate."

~

"Now, remember, dear," Mrs. Yashiro said as she and her husband waited for the elevator to reach his son's floor, "this was your idea. You're the one who gave him a list of places and told him to choose one and move out. You shouldn't be surprised that he went and did it."

It had been a month since Mr. Yashiro had handed his son a list, and told him to move out. That very night, Kiyoharu had returned home with the news that he had located a place, and would be moving in two weeks. Now that he was finally settled, the time had come to visit.

Mr. Yashiro straightened his tie for the fifth time since they had entered a building that had _not_ been on the list he had offered his son, and was clearly nicer than his son could afford. The entryway had marble floors, and well-polished wood furniture, and the doorman – the apartment had a _doorman_ , for crying out loud – had looked at them suspiciously until Yashiro had buzzed them in.

The elevator stopped. The carpet on the floor looked freshly vacuumed and expensive. Fresh paint covered the walls, with tasteful paintings hung at appropriate intervals. The Yashiros stopped in front of their son's door. Mr. Yashiro raised his arm and knocked twice, sharply. The door opened before them.

"Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Yashiro," a young Korean man exclaimed as he opened the door, "please come in. Kiyoharu is just setting the table, but dinner should be ready shortly.

"Are you our son's roommate, then?" Mr. Yashiro asked as he stepped inside the tastefully decorated apartment. He couldn't be a butler. At least, Mr. Yashiro was relatively sure about that.

"No." The shorter man shook his head. Then he smiled, a quirking of the lip just in one corner, and said, "Well, I suppose, after a fashion."

"Knock it off, Ko," the youngest Yashiro growled as he stepped into the room, and if Ko sounded more like bastard, Yongha gave no sign of minding. He turned to Kiyoharu, eyes wide.

"But Haru, I thought we were finally going to tell them tonight?" Yongha said, his voice light in a way that Mrs. Yashiro would have called innocent even as Kiyoharu denounced it as devious. Kiyoharu bared his teeth as Yongha continued, "After all, it's not like they can kick you out any more, is it? Even if they don't approve, you're already settled."

"Kiyoharu."

Mr. Yashiro's voice pierced the air. The young man turned to look at his father, his shoulders and face tightening as he turned. Mr. Yashiro waited until his son had met his eyes. "

If you do not have a roommate," he said, "you are living beyond your means. Even if you make enough now to cover the rent for this place, you would do well to save most of your money while go is still popular enough for you to be making anything at all. Cease this foolishness at once."

Kiyoharu looked down at the floor and struggled for breath and words both. He could feel pressure welling up beyond his eyes and pushed it stubbornly away. He had thought… he wasn't sure what he had thought, what he had expected, but this wasn't… it wasn't…

Yongha's laughter broke through the air. Kiyoharu looked up, watched the poised and deliberate way that the Korean shook his head. His father's face grew redder by the moment.

"Beyond his means?" The Korean asked through his laughter. "You mean you haven't told them, Kiyoharu?"

"Told us what?" Mrs. Yashiro said, warily eyeing Ko as though he was about to declare that the moon was made of cheese and the sea filled with sand.

"Your son is a rather decent go player." Ko said, meeting her eyes briefly as he took a deep breath. He turned his head sideways and shrugged, continuing, "He'll never be a Touya or a Shindou, and he'll certainly never be as good as me –"

"You –"

"But!" Ko glared at Yashiro, who stopped, waiting. "But he still is a pretty decent go player. He's also extremely… frugal."

"You call this –" Mr. Yashiro gestured around the room, at the large windows and beautiful view, at the carved wooden furniture, at the hand-painted screen separating the living room from the dining area, "frugal?"

The younger man smirked. "Since I couldn't talk him into the Jacuzzi, yes."

"Jacuzzi?" Mr. Yashiro's face began turn purple as he glared at the boy, waving his arms angrily. "Now look here, go is not a way for a man to make his living! You're leading my son into financial ruin. I will not have him ending up penniless just because –"

"Do you truly not realize that he's already made billions of yen?"

Mr. Yashiro stopped. His hands fell slowly to his sides, and he glanced at his son. Kiyoharu's face had regained some of its colour. He looked out the window, not meeting his father's eyes at all, focused on some point that Mr. Yashiro, for all that he looked, could not see. Beside him, Mrs. Yashiro gasped.

"Kiyoharu?" Mr. Yashiro said after a moment. Yashiro's hands tightened around the chopsticks he'd been cooking with.

"He bought this place out right, after he freed up some of his assets," Yongha said quietly, watching father and son as they stood apart from one another. "Go has existed for thousands of years, and will exist for more, so of course 'Haru is being far too cautious. Even if something ridiculous like the end of professional go should happen, 'Haru could easily retire."

Mr. Yashiro walked across the living room slowly. He stopped by his son's side, and angled his head until he could see Kiyoharu's face. Kiyoharu looked down, his eyes on the solid wood floor beneath his feet.

"Is that true, Kiyoharu?" Mr. Yashiro asked quietly. Kiyoharu stood still. Then, slowly, he nodded his head once. Mr. Yashiro reached out a hand. Kiyoharu jumped as it landed on his shoulder, looking up at last into his father's eyes. They stood together, neither speaking, until Mr. Yashiro gave his son a tentative smile, and nodded his head.

"Well," Yongha said as Kiyoharu began to smile back, "I don't know about you, Mrs. Yashiro, but I'm famished. Presuming 'Haru hasn't burned anything –"

Kiyoharu spun around in an instant, waving the chopsticks angrily in the air as he approached Yongha

"I've give you burned, you lousy –"

~

After dinner, when Kiyoharu's parents had bid them fair well and the door was shut firmly behind them, Yongha turned to the Japanese man.

"You can tell me how wonderful I am now, and how lost you would be without me," Ko said, looking at Kiyoharu expectantly. For a moment, Yashiro just looked at the other man, whose lips had the faintest hint of an upturn to them. The man who had finally, finally gotten his father to appreciate go a little bit.

Yongha being wonderful had nothing and everything to do with the way Kiyoharu pushed him back against the wall and kissed the smirk right off him.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was original written as part of the LJ Fifthmus event, for tarigwaemir, who still gets massive love for an excellent prompt. Cheers! =)


End file.
